Alasdair Stuart

Al Dente: Chorizo and Potato Quesadillas

I love Mexican food. It’s massively protein heavy, loves cheese, is frequently based around bread and is really simple to make. What’s not to like?

That’s why we ended up eating at a Mexican place in Cardiff when we were up there a couple of weeks ago. Wahaca is one of the few Mexican chains in this country and everything on the menu looks great. Based on what we had, everything tastes great too.

The standout was a quesadilla made with potato and chorizo. Now, quesadillas are not only a fabulous word but fabulous and stupidly easy food. Here’s how you make them:

-Take a wrap

-Fill one half of it with cheese, vegetables and whatever meat you want.

-Fold it in half.

-Dry fry it in a pan for about three minutes on each side.

-Chop in half.

-Stuff in face.

-Repeat.

These weren’t just easy either, they were revelatory. Spicy and gooey and absolutely delicious. So I immediately decided to copy them.

Victor! You know the drill!

This is not fussy food as you can see. What you’re looking at there is:

-Two potatoes, peeled and cubed.

-Maybe 60 grams of cheddar cheese

-150g of chorizo, cubed.

-Wraps

Prepping this is stupidly easy, but you can do it a couple of different ways. The potatoes were peeled and diced raw and as a result I chopped them nice and fine. However, you could boil and mash them first and that would work just as well. Because not only would that glue the quesadillas together but mashed potato is a pure and holy thing.

Seriously.

I actually want some mashed potato now.

Anyway! You’re all adults, you’re all smart people, I trust you to grate cheese. So, that just leaves the chorizo as a…dicey proposition.

Thank you.

Here’s what I did; chopped it in half, then cut that half length ways and laid it flat on the chopping board. Then cut it length ways again and then across its width and yes this will make you uncomfortable if you’re a guy and yes we’re moving on now.

So next up, boil your potatoes. You don’t have to do it for long if you’ve cut them thing and small but run it for at least ten minutes or until a fork goes straight through a piece. Then, drain them, drop your chorizo into the pan and add the potatoes. Like this:

Now here’s the cool bit. No oil required. Seriously, just heating the chorizo like this will push the oil it contains out into the pan and set up this uniform heat that will permeate the meat and the potoato and create AWESOMENESS.

See?

Even better, the par boil on the potatoes means they’re still pretty firm. After about 8-10 minutes of this they’ll be nice and fluffy and the starch they contain will combine with the oil from the meat to create some form of glorious singularity at the bottom of the pan. One you get to EAT.

So, next up, spoon the mixture onto one half of your wrap and sprinkle the cheese over the top. You can eat them like this. The filling’s hot and delicious and you’ll come back for seconds.

But delay that gratification because what’s coming is even better.

Heat a pan and drop the folded quesadillas in there. One at a time is probably safest but if you’re a wild loner maverick on the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City, do them both. Give it about 2 minutes on each side and check frequently, especially if your gas hob hulks out like ours tends to. Once the wrap is browned and crispy on one side, flip it and cook the other side.

There will be lots of filling. Press down on it to make sure it cooks through. I use the bottom of another pan or Marguerite’s painted bacon crushenator if that’s handy.

And then? Then this happens.

The key things to focus on here are the thickness of the quesadilla and just how freaking great that minifig is. Look at his little flag!

Also at the delicious food. In fact mostly at that.

What’s It Like?

A really fantastically great sandwich.

What’s It Good With?

Salsa. Guacamole. Salsa AND guacamole. Soured Cream. Pico De Gallo. Jalapeno jelly. Basically name a condiment, this works with it.

This is a wonderful, stupidly fast and endlessly adaptable meal. If you’ve not had quesadillas before, this is the perfect place to start but they’re immensely versatile. In fact I’ve got a Cheesecake-adilla recipe I want to try out. I’ll do that next time I’m in this culinary neck of the woods. But next Al Dente?